


Into the Fire

by renecdote



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Dick is a Good Brother, Explosion, Gen, Rescue, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 09:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12478636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renecdote/pseuds/renecdote
Summary: "We don't know that he's still in there.” Oracle this time. “Even if he is, there's no guarantee that he’s-” She cuts herself off; none of them want to even suggest that Tim might be dead, but he'd sent up a distress signal and less than a minute later the building had exploded. “Besides, the building is unstable, going in there would be foolish. You'd just be risking your own life.”But not going in is risking Tim’s.





	Into the Fire

**Author's Note:**

> For a whumptober prompt on Tumblr. I chose explosions.

A ball of fire shoots up into the sky and Dick does what his training dictates he should not do: he lets his emotions take control, propelling him forward as he runs toward it. A flying leap from one building to another, stumbling a little on the landing because the gap was wider than he'd usually risk on patrol. But this isn't just patrol, it's not just responding to the mayhem unleashed by one of the rogues. This isn't even a response to civilians in trouble. This is his _family_ in danger.

Another jump he doesn't even bother calculating before pushing off the edge, feeling the second of weightlessness before the ball of his foot touches down on concrete and he's rolling forward to keep the momentum going. Can't stop. Can't even pause to think. Can't get their fast enough. Another rooftop, grapple this time, swinging and jumping and jumping and swinging until he skids to a stop one rooftop away from the building now engulfed in flames.

And the whole time he's praying under his breath please be okay, please don't be in there, please don't be dead.

“Batman?” He questions between ragged gasps for breath. Between the sprint, the panic and the acrid smoke pouring into the air, his lungs are burning. “Oracle? Does anyone have eyes?”

Several seconds of tense silence before Batman responds, “ _Negative, Nightwing. I'll be there shortly. Stay where you are._ ”

Stay where he-? “Tim is in there!” Dick snaps, voice tight and controlled because as much as he wants to yell, it's the fastest way to get Bruce to shut him out. “We can't just stand by and watch the building burn!”

“ _We don't know that he's still in there._ ” Oracle this time. “ _Even if he is, there's no guarantee that he’s-_ ” She cuts herself off; none of them want to even suggest that Tim might be dead, but he'd sent up a distress signal and less than a minute later the building had exploded. “ _Besides, the building is unstable, going in there would be foolish. You'd just be risking your own life._ ”

But not going in is risking Tim’s.

“What about civilians?” Dick checks because he wants to save Tim but if there are civilians in there, they take priority. Odds are Tim can take care of himself; civilians, even Gothamites who've been born into this kind of mayhem, not so much. If there are civilians in there, though, that gives him another excuse to go in.

“ _Building was vacant,_ ” Oracle says. “ _Scheduled for demolition next month. I guess someone wanted it gone a little earlier than that._ ”

Dick isn't listening though because he thought he just saw… Yes, there. A flicker in one of the top floor windows. Red? Yellow? Black? Could just be a dancing flame, or curling smoke. But Dick’s gut says it's their lost Robin.

He taps his comm, relief warring with the threat of danger still crackling and popping, devouring timber and glass and metal, sucking the oxygen out of the air. “I see him,” he says. “Top floor, east side.”

The flicker of movement comes again, distinctly human, distinctly Robin colours, this time. There's no smashing of the glass though, no grapple being shot out so he can swing himself to safety. Dread coils in Dick’s stomach, cold and heavy like lead. Something's wrong.

“I'm going in.” He says it as a courtesy, mind set, his grapple already in his hand and pointed at his destination. Neither Oracle or Batman are going to be able to stop him with any amount of wise advice or orders.

He swings through the air to the sound of Bruce’s agitated, “ _Nightwing, wait!_ ”

Crashing through the window is like crashing into a furnace. Even with the fire retardant, temperature regulating suit it doesn't take long for the heat to overwhelm him. Dick staggers slightly standing up. God. He can't imagine how Tim is feeling having been in here for several minutes. It hardens his resolve to get them both out pronto.

He'd come in a few windows over from where he'd seen Robin but it doesn't take long to find him. All Dick has to do is follow the sound of coughing. Tim is on his knees, one hand clutching at the red tunic over his chest, the other bracing him on the floor as he gasps and wheezes through a harsh coughing fit. Dick is by his side in seconds, reaching for the compartment in Robin’s belt that holds the rebreather, chastisement rising to his lips because Tim should have known to put it on as soon as there was smoke. But the rebreather isn't there.

“Broke,” Tim tells him, coughing fit finally under control. He gestures to his split lip. “Lucky hit. Damaged my grapple too.” He doesn't clarify whether it was a person or the explosion; Dick doesn't ask.

One of the lenses is missing from Robin’s domino mask and Dick doesn't even want to think about how that happened, but it means he can see the pale, watery blue-grey of one eye when Tim looks at him. Robin’s shoulders are straight and his mouth is its usual grim line, but Tim’s unmasked eye reveals his naked relief. It cuts right to Dick’s heart and says _I’m so grateful someone came for me._ Dick has never been so glad he ignored Bruce's orders.

“I've got you,” he promises, pulling Tim to his feet and holding him close when he sways. Could be smoke inhalation, could be the heat, could be something else entirely. But at least he's _alive_.

From somewhere below them there's a muffled boom and the floor tilts alarmingly. Oracle and Batman’s voices are overlapping in his ear, telling him to get out now, the whole building is going to go in a second. Any hope that the building is going to remain standing long enough for him to evaluate his brother’s injuries and find a better way out than how he came in evaporate. New plan: pick Robin up and jump.

The rooftop Dick came up from is too low but there's a taller one to the right. They'd have to jump first to get the angle but if he can… The grapple hooks around a gargoyle and Dick has never been so thankful for Gotham’s gothic architecture as the building they just left groans and spits another ball of fire into the air. He can still feel the wave of heat as they stumble and fall in a heap on a roof two buildings away.

The motions has jarred Tim’s lungs and started his coughing again so Dick pushing them into a sitting position and rubs his back. From here, he has the perfect view of the burning building’s upper floors collapsing in on themselves, sucked in by gravity and hungry flames. If he'd so much as hesitated before that jump...

“That was close,” he mutters. _Too close._

“Thought I was going to die,” his brother rasps.

They're safe now, out of harm's way, so this is the part where Dick should let go, maybe do that medical exam, reassure Batman and Oracle that they're both fine. Instead, he hugs Tim tighter. “Not if I have anything to say about it, little brother.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr is [here](tantalum-cobalt.tumblr.com).


End file.
